


it's just you and me on my island of hope

by trustingno1



Category: Hunger Games (2012), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trustingno1/pseuds/trustingno1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The odds, it seems, were never going to be in their favour.</p>
<p>(written for a ficathon prompt; Gale and Katniss are reaped)</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's just you and me on my island of hope

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Sarah McLachlan's _I Love You_.

The odds, it seems, were never going to be in their favour.

 

*

She brushes away Prim's tears, her hands steady and sure. "It's OK," she murmurs, over and over.

When Prim flings her arms around her with a sob, she clutches at her sister, tiny and perfect and sweet, and glances up to meet her mother's gaze. "Don't let her watch," she says. " _Please_ ," and her voice catches for the first time today, "Don't let her watch."

Her mother covers her mouth for a moment, before righting herself. She leans down to kiss Katniss on the forehead. "You've always been the brave one."

 

*

 

Her last visitor surprises her the most.

"Hazelle," she says, rising from the velvet couch, and Hazelle opens her arms to her.

(Hazelle doesn't cry, hasn't cried - won't, until the two of them are gone, because if the explosion left Katniss' mother almost catatonic with grief, it made Hazelle harder.

For that, Katniss is glad).

"Good luck," she says, softly, and there's a lump in Katniss' throat, but-

"I won't-" she needs to tell her, needs Hazelle to know that no matter what happens, no matter what the Capitol tries to turn her into, she won't - not _Gale_ , not _ever_ , and Hazelle cups her cheeks, briefly.

"I know."

 

*

 

Effie knocks at her cabin door every five minutes for the first hour. "Katniss?" she trills, "Katniss, we're waiting."

"Go _away_ ," she finally snaps, throwing a well-worn shoe at the closed door. "Leave me _alone_."

(When she hears Effie's indignant, "Well, I _never_ ," she throws the other shoe for good measure; doesn't even smile at the surprised shriek).

 

 

*

 

Gale tries, later, just once. "Katniss," he says, wheedling, through the door, "You're missing some really good stew."

He laugh is wobbly, unfamiliar. "Shut up."

 

*

 

She emerges the next morning, silently takes a seat at the dining table. "Nice of you to make an appearance, sweetheart," Haymitch says, taking in her pale face, the dark smudges under her eyes.

She has nothing to say to him.

 

*

 

As they pull into the station, she stares at the people on the platform, made-up mouths stretched into smiles too big for this day.

(She and Gale stay far away from the windows. For the first time - and only for a moment - she's glad he's there with her).

 

 

*

 

 

They're on fire.

They won't return the waves or catch the kisses, but Gale grabs her hand and raises it in- triumph, almost, their faces hard and set.

 

*

 

 

"What are you good at?" Haymitch asks, the night before their first training session.

"I'm alright with a snare," Gale says, and she snorts, "and Katniss is good with a bow and arrow."

"So are you," she mutters.

"Not as good as you," he says, strangely - painfully - genuine, and she glares at both of them.

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

"The Careers'll hunt us down before we-"

" _Fuck_ the Careers," Gale says, eyes blazing with something she doesn't quite recognize, not yet, and Haymitch - who she thought had passed out before the second course - lifts his head from the table, looks interested for the first time in two days.

"This," he says, thoughtfully, "is something I can work with."

 

(Later that night, Haymitch tells her that he wants to prep them separately tomorrow, and she shrugs like she doesn't care, but feels the first cracks, the first division. Haymitch knows what she and Gale refuse to acknowledge, that there will be only one victor, and he's making his choice).

 

*

 

"What did Haymitch want?" she asks,

"To talk strategy," Gale replies.

She raises her eyebrows, expectantly. "Which is?"

He grins, then, fast and real. "Shoot straight."

She shoves his shoulder, but laughs, laughs for the first time since they left home, and, if she's honest, probably long before that.

 

 

*

Gale gets a respectable 8 for his snares, and she scores an 11, and even Effie can't hide her surprise.

Cinna kisses her cheek and squeezes her hand and Gale's smile is crooked, amused. "Not bad," he teases, gently.

 

*

 

Her interview strategy is simple and probably not revolutionary, but it's the _truth_ , and maybe that's what everyone will see.

She'll win for her sister.

 

*

 

The morning of the Games, she's staring blankly out their twelfth-floor windows, toying with the mockingjay pin when Gale appears, standing silently beside her.

"Don't let them starve," she whispers, "And don't let Prim enter her name-"

He's on her before she can finish, his arms strong and warm and _familiar_ , though she can count on one hand the number of times he's hugged her before, and for reasons that have nothing to do with how tightly he's holding her, she can't _breathe_.

"We're in this together," Gale says, low and intent, pulling back, and she smiles, tired and resigned.

"Yeah, right, until-"

"No," he grabs her face then, searches her eyes. "We're in this _together_."

 

 

*

 

 

 

"Just clear out," she can hear Haymitch telling them (but the bow, the arrows, so close she could just-)

Right after the gong, she hears Gale. " _Run!_ " he yells, across the field, and she doesn't know who she's spiting when she runs towards the Cornucopia.

 

 

(She gets away with a small backpack and a knife to her retreating back for her troubles).

 

 

*

 

She hides and waits, because this was the deal. Find each other, then water (she doesn't dwell on the order of the priorities, because- well. She needs him, and that's all there is to it).

It could've been hours, it could've been minutes - long enough for a heaviness to settle in her stomach, for her nerves to stretch tight as a bow - but when Gale appears, she lets out a small cry of relief (covers her mouth immediately and hopes the cameras haven't caught it).

He's carrying the bow, _her_ bow, and she's moving towards him before she knows what she's doing. She shoves his chest, and he stumbles back, caught off-guard. "You _idiot_ ," she hisses, and she's tearing up a little, the fear, the relief - all pressing down on her. She grabs him in a tight hug that he returns, the bow digging into her back. "Such an idiot," she murmurs, into his shoulder.

She can feel him smiling. "The gratitude I get around here..."

She takes a deep breath, steadies herself, and pulls back. "You could've been-" and she still can't say it, can't imagine it - won't ever imagine it - even here, and she refuses to wonder what he had to do to get the bow.

He shrugs. "It's the only way we'll win," he says, simply and she should pull him up on it, on "we", but - later. For now-

"We need to make you a bow."

 

 

 

*

 

They spend the first night belted to a tree branch.

 

 

 

*

 

 

She can hear the voices long before she sees them, hears the scream of the girl from District 8, the laughter of the Careers.

From their vantage point high in the trees, Gale lines up their first- kills. That's what they are, after all.

"I'll take District 4," Gale breathes, "You go for District 1 first."

_Glimmer_ , her mind supplies, but she doubts Gale wants to know.

(Glimmer never sees it coming. _No different to an animal_ , she tells herself, tells herself so she won't scream. At least it was quick).

 

*

 

 

Rue is light on her feet and almost silent, but Katniss is good, has always been good, at hearing the unexpected crunch of leaves underfoot, the unnatural rustle of a bush.

She jerks her chin at a tree to her right, and Gale follows her gaze.

"We've got plenty to share, Rue," she says, softly, and a pair of hopeful (but wary, so wary) brown eyes peer around the tree at them.

She offers Rue a drumstick, and Rue pauses for a long moment (can't be old enough to remember the year the boy from District 10? maybe? poisoned his allies).

Slowly, carefully, she takes a seat next to Katniss.

"Thank you," she says, quietly.

 

*

 

When Rue is killed, Gale grips Katniss' biceps from behind, fingers digging in so tight it'd hurt if she could feel anything else.

(She suspects that she wasn't the only one who saw Prim in Rue).

He helps her pick the flowers, lets her arrange them by herself, and pulls her away when the hovercraft appears.

"Don't watch," he says, almost gently.

(When they talk about it later, briefly, haltingly, he uses words like "murder" and "accountable", loud enough for the microphones to pick up).

 

 

*

 

They don't receive much in the way of gifts; but then, they don't need much. They pick berries and hunt game, and they're doing fine by themselves. There's the occasional parachute (a jacket? She puzzles over that one for a while. District 8, maybe, but _why?_ )

 

 

*

 

Clove surprises her next to the stream, pins her to the ground and reaches for her knife before she can call out for Gale

(she doesn't need to, though. Somehow, somehow he knows, and he's there, and he kills her with hands Katniss has seen braid Prim's hair).

 

 

*

 

 

Gale kills the muttation with Rue's sad brown eyes, kills it so Katniss won't have to, and she wills herself not to vomit.

 

*

 

There's a cannon, then-

It's just the two of them.

 

*

But Gale is smiling, very slightly, like this is a _good thing_ , like this is what he wanted, and if she didn't know him better than anyone in the world did, she'd worry he'd kill her now, before she had time to even grab an arrow.

"I'm not leaving here without you," he says, "We're in this together, remember?"

"Together," she repeats, quietly. "But-"

He touches her lips then, chapped and dry, and traces them with his thumb.

"Do you trust me, Catnip?"

She smiles, then, too, just briefly.

"Always."

"Good."

She startles when he turns and walks away, long, brisk steps. "Gale-"

"Trust me," he calls back. He raises his bow. "You ever missed, Katniss?" he asks, conversationally, and it takes her a second, because Gale _knows this_ , knows her, and-

_oh_.

She raises hers in kind, pauses for a moment to wonder how her smile's going to be interpreted. Finds she doesn't really care. "No. Have you?"

"Not since I met you."

"On the count of three?" she asks, and even from across the field, she can see his relief, relief that she understands what he's doing.

"Of course."

"One," she says, drawing her bow.

"Two," he says, as he lines up what she assumes is her head.

As she opens her mouth to say, "Three," the voices of Claudius Templesmith booms down from above.

" _Stop!_ "

 

 

*

Haymitch will explain, later, much later, that this was the strategy all along - undermine the Capitol, the Games by forcing two winners, and there's an angry, almost anarchistic part of Gale she knows Haymitch admires.

"Risky plan," is all she says.

"It worked, didn't it?" Haymitch replies, refilling his glass and lifting it in a silent toast to Gale, who smiles a little.

It's only as they're pulling into the station back home, District 12, that she remembers to ask (because _Prim_ , Prim is so close now).

"What were those gifts about?" she asks, and Gale looks up.

Haymitch swirls his glass around for a moment before answering. "Some of the other districts ... liked your, uh, rebellious streaks."

She puzzles over that, over the look of delight that crosses Gale's face for a moment, as the train comes to a stop, is still mulling it over as the doors open, but she can see her mother and Prim, in her best clothes, standing on her tiptoes to make sure Katniss doesn't miss them and for a while, forgets to care about anything else.

 


End file.
